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U.S. stock futures were mixed on Friday, mitigated in part by a rise in Treasury yields, as investors sought to take a pause from the recent technology-led market rally that propelled stocks to a record close. last night.
Nvidia (NVDA) Thursday's surprising rise, which added more than $277 billion to the ai chip maker's market value (the largest market gain in U.S. history), helped push the S&P 500 to an all-time high of 5,087. .03 points.
Investors repriced technology and ai stocks across the board in the wake of Nvidia's better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings, which included a strong near-term sales outlook, sending the Nasdaq higher almost 3% and will be within 1% of the total. maximum it reached in November 2021.
Meanwhile, Nvidia shares were still up 1.75% in pre-market trading, indicating an opening price of $799.21 each and a market value of $1.95 trillion.
Related: Analysts Renew Nvidia Price Targets as Stock Tests $2 Trillion
Adding to the bullish sentiment: another round of strong employment data, which showed jobless claims fell to 201,000 for the week ending February 17, as well as signs that overall business activity continued to accelerate in February .
However, concerns about inflation have been reignited among bond traders over the past week, sparked first by a better-than-expected January Consumer Price Index report and fanned by hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials and Minutes of the latest central bank policy meeting.
In fact, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said last night at an event in Minneapolis that “the risk of waiting a little longer to ease policy is smaller than the risk of acting too soon and possibly halting or reversing the progress we've made.” we have achieved in terms of inflation. “.
Benchmark 10-year bond yields, which have risen about 45 basis points over the past three weeks, were last up 2 basis points from Thursday's close at 4.345% in the wake of Waller's comments.
Meanwhile, the odds of a Fed rate cut in May have fallen to around 20%, with bets on cuts starting in June pegged at around 52.8%, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool.
On Wall Street, stocks are set for a mixed but muted opening to end the week, with futures contracts tied to the S&P 500 indicating an opening gain of 2 points from last night's record close.
Meanwhile, futures linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average indicate a gain of 65 points, while those linked to the Nasdaq suggest a decline of 20 points.
In overseas markets, Europe's Stoxx 600 rose 0.13% in early Frankfurt trading, while Britain's FTSE 100 was little changed from last night's close.
Overnight in Asia, the MSCI regional index excluding Japan rose 0.13% in close trading, while Japan's Nikkei 225 was closed for the Emperor's annual birthday celebration.
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